Practice-Driven Professional Development for Algebra Teachers

专业发展（PD）是提高教师课堂教学质量的直接尝试。传统的PD通常在时间和金钱方面都是昂贵的，并且往往以一种通用的方法交付。此外，对于采用翻转教学等新技术的教师来说，支持他们努力的资源可能很少。该项目旨在开发一种个性化的、可扩展的PD方法，该方法以代数教师的实践和个人优势为中心并以此为基础。该项目将把PD工作的重点放在适合教师现有实践的教学行动上，这些行动可以很容易地采用，并且容易获得。项目团队将这种指导性行动称为高吸收实践。该项目将开发和实地测试PD材料，通过这些高吸收率的实践来大规模支持代数教师。除了开发PD材料外，项目团队还将在大约60个代数教室中研究PD模型在学生学习成果和教师教学实践方面的功效。主要数据来源将包括教师观察数据、教师访谈和调查、学生前后测试、学生调查和PD分析。本研究将描述PD对教师教学实践的即时和长期影响；并描述教师参与PD对学生学习成果和参与的影响。研究问题包括：1)教师参与PD如何影响他们的教学实践？2)参与PD的教师的学生在学习成果上是否表现出不同的增长？3)参加PD的教师的学生的家庭作业完成率是否有所提高？4)参加PD的教师的学生在个人工作时间是否增加了参与度？为了满足我们的PD开发和研究目标，该项目将为PD和教学变革的增量、实践驱动方法的有效性提供知识。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Professional development (PD) is a direct attempt to improve the quality of instruction for teachers already in the classroom. Traditional PD is typically costly in terms of time and money, and efforts tend to be delivered as a one-size-fits-all approach. Furthermore, for teachers who adopt novel techniques such as flipped instruction, there may be few resources to support their efforts. This project seeks to develop a personalized, scalable PD approach that centers on and builds from algebra teachers’ practices and individual strengths. The project will focus its PD efforts on instructional actions that are tailored to teachers' existing practice, can be readily adopted, and are easily accessible. The project team have termed such instructional actions high-uptake practices. The project will develop and field test PD materials to support algebra teachers at scale via these high-uptake practices.In addition to developing the PD materials, the project team will research the efficacy of this PD model in terms of student learning outcomes and teacher instructional practices in approximately 60 algebra classrooms. The main data sources will include teacher observation data, teacher interviews and surveys, student pre/posttests, student surveys, and PD analytics. The research will characterize the immediate and longer term impacts of the PD on teachers’ instructional practices; and characterize the impact of teachers’ participation in the PD on students’ learning outcomes and engagement. The research questions include: 1) In what ways does teachers’ participation in the PD impact their instructional practices? 2) Do students of teachers who participate in the PD demonstrate differential growth in learning outcomes? 3) Do students of teachers who participate in the PD have increased rates of homework completion?; and 4) Do students of teachers who participate in the PD have increased engagement during individual work time? In meeting both our PD development and research aims, this project will contribute knowledge about the effectiveness of an incremental, practice-driven approach to PD and instructional change.The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.